Just before we left Sev (RAL Space) the project manager of SAFER gave a talk to people at the Paranal Observatory. There were some projector problems in the beginning so the recording starts rather suddenly. Also once again sorry about the quality the light levels at ESO have to be kept low and we were not equipped for low light recording. Anyway enjoy the talk:

After the post on Guillermo’s talk we felt that we should share a bit more about the location of the SAFER trials the Atacama desert. Gerd Hudepohl from ESO has used the chance of working within this amazing place to document some of the most interesting and amazing parts with his skills in photography. We invite you to visit his website and look at his gallery to see more of Chile, the Atacama, life in the Atacama and the Paranal Observatory:

The work is far from over, the study team will continue analysing data and publishing results but for now the field trial part of the trial is over. Both the Atacama team and RCC celebrates the end of the successful trials.

credit: Gerd Hudepohl (ESO)

note: this in not the entire RCC teamcredit: Lorraine Moody (Catapult)

ESO has published a news article on the SAFER trials. Note that this was the second trial in the Atacama, about one and a half year ago a different consortium completed the SEEKER long range navigation trials not far from where SAFER operated. For the ESO publication please visit the ESO website:

It is time for Bridget to leave after many long hard days out in the desert. But this last day is the day for celebration and many people from the Paranal Observatory gather to watch Bridget’s last traverse before she needs to go back in the shipping crate.

It’s been an intense but exciting few days at the RCC with operations running from early morning to late at night. The team are based in the CATAPULT centre and are making full use of the large video wall to display data from the sensors and 3D planning tools. Each day begins with a review of the previous sol’s uplinked data in order to allow the team to select new targets or trajectories for further investigation. For the early phases we were joined by senior observers from missions such as ExoMars. The team must quickly check Bridget’s current position given that it must be removed from the site overnight. They then consider good observation points for instruments and safe paths for navigation. A key goal for SAFER was the desire to use information from the various sensors in an integrated way. This allows individual instruments teams to see where their data originated from and allows scientists to understand the terrain in context. Once a plan has been prepared it is dispatched to the LCC team who then forward it onto the rover. Plans can take anywhere from 15 mins to several hours to execute. Whilst awaiting the data to be uplinked from the Rover, the team start to prepare for the next plan and explore what if scenarios in case of any issues. As we enter our last day it’s clear that this has been a fantastic learning experience for all involved. As our lead scientist Susanne noted we had our own “flight moment” on Thursday when the WISDOM team got to see their data displayed in 3D for the first time on Thursday evening. Looking forward to the next field trial! RCC Over and out.